She is also proprietor of the Healing Hands Clinic. And of Ultimate Healing Hands, and the Healing Hands Body and Skin Care Spa — and about a dozen others, in part to protect that Healing Hands nom de guerre from other users.

But Greenberg is not involved with the Healing Hands Center in Walnut Creek, where a woman was arrested on suspicion of prostitution in a sting earlier this month.

Greenberg says the owner of the Walnut Creek establishment is using the “Healing Hands” name illegally, and, worse, the fallout from the sting has landed on her shoulders.

She said it’s damaging to her reputation, and that even her children have been affected.

“They’ve had friends come up and say, ‘I didn’t know your mother is a madam,'” she said.

Jayne Bender, who runs the Walnut Creek facility, said she is the registered owner of the name. She said she, too, runs a legitimate business that suffered when a woman who was renting a room from her allegedly solicited a police officer.

“There’s a bunch of ‘Healing Hands’ out there — at least 10,” she said. “And (Greenberg) is in another city.”

Fictitious names are registered with the county clerk’s office. Both Bender and Greenberg say they own the rights to “Healing Hands Center.” Records show that it belongs to Greenberg; Bender’s business is listed as “Healing Hauds Center,” which Bender said is an error.

It is not the first time Greenberg had to fight over the name. She said her competitors cannot seem to keep their hands off it.

“Every year someone else starts using it,” she said. “Every year I have to go talk to someone.”

Last year, her attorney contacted a therapist in Danville who was using the name. And before the prostitution sting, she visited the Walnut Creek center.

“I had been getting calls, people asking for an appointment with so-and-so,” she said. “I didn’t have anyone by that name working for me. Then they told me I had a satellite location in Walnut Creek.”

Greenberg said she wished the county would do more about such nominal co-opting.

The County Clerk’s Office discourages people from using names too similar to ones already registered. People can search a database of fictitious names, which are good for five years. A name could be minimally changed and still be valid, but a court can decide that it is too close to the original and order a change.

The threat of a lawsuit, Greenberg said, is her only real recourse.

“I don’t like to do it, I don’t want to do it,” she said. “But if need be, I will.”

She stressed that people starting a business should go through the same channels she did.

“For the most part, people think Healing Hands is a great name, which it is, but it’s my name,” she said. “I’ve been fighting for this name for 10 years and I’m tired of it.”